There is nothing quite like our native spring.I was awoken at 5.15 am the other morning to the dawn chorus. Amazing! I filmed it to get the sound but as it's darkat that time,there is nothing to see.Thanks for sharing your Spring in Devon :) x

Did you notice the faes' footprints on the moss? Still winter here, and the few things that are blooming are drowning in the rain. Your walk gave me hope of things to come. Be well, dear Rima, take care of yourself.

Hello Rima,I was also out in the spring sun and showers today - lovely to see where you walk, and hear too!I love the Moss Daughter poem...I've found your blog to be one of the most inspiring and captivating I have seen - your paintings and your way of life... I really look forward to your posts!I have decided to be brave and have a go at a blog of my own about art and writing... If you found the time to take a wee look I'd be most chuffed...www.wordhoards.blogspot.comEnjoy the spring!Carrie...

What a wonderful treat this post is Rima. The images are all beautiful and uplifting and the videos are a delight - all my favourite things in one package. We have a crows nest just outside our house. I used to think that they picked up fallen twigs to build their nests but one day watched one select and snap off growing twigs. Thankyou for sharing your lovely spring walk with us.

I love the way the sun peeps through the trees in the first film and the metallic, hissing sound of the water. I love the sound of the birds in the secon one, and the wind in the third. The crows are disturbing my kitten!

Dear Rima, Thank you for remember me to take the time to appreciate Life and her cycles. You always bring me a fresh view about my life. It is always a real pleasure to receive your post.Love,Monique from Quebec, Canada

Hi Rima, how are you? I love your blog! Your work is wonderful! Your house is beautiful! It seems a fairy tale. I'm from Brazil, live in Rio de Janeiro. I'm following you on twitter and added your blog in my blog. Congratulations for your work and blog! You are very talented. Kisses,Rozani

I just love your blog...have for a long time now. You evoke thought and my love of art.This latest post is so beautiful. Love the beauty that surrounds you.Your videos are wonderful...love them.Wishing you a wonderful day!Hugs, Nancy

Wonderful photos! Nature is beautiful if we take the time to see it! I love your paintings. I noticed a painting of Väinämöinen singing and I felt glad because my father is from Karelia in Finland and I love the tales of Kalevala as well as finnish folkmusic.

Wow..No wonder you write and draw fantastic fairy tales. I can feel all the woodland spirits and creatures living in the forest and stream! THe videos are intoxicating. My imagination went wild. Than kyou so so much for sharing your lovely world.

I don't have a blog or a twitter account, but I love your twitter recommendations, and your paintings. I hope your heart is heal now (because of your wheeled house), it seems that your new place is surrounded by magic.

Beautiful Rima! And here there is, finally, a slight chill in the air, the first rains have come, and we too have the first signs of green returning, only here they are making their way up through the dry grass of the long, hot summer, heralding winter!

I lose myself in these videos of yours. (In a lovely way!) The sounds bring it to life for me. Dartmoor is such a magical, mystical place and nature is so potent there. Thankyou for sharing a little piece of it here. I need to go back for a visit soon, too long overdue. I left my heart there many years ago.xx

So beautiful and evocative. I envy you your easy communion with these stately trees. Especially wonderful the great tree growing on top of/into the wall.

I have 485 apple trees on my new farm, but not one over 10 feet. I walk through my orchard, chattering away with them, admiring the tiny leaves beginning to break through the buds, but they are sisters - none of the huge, grandmothers and fathers that I am used to. No other trees at all. This will be remedied, but it will take time, time, time. I miss the big trees. Must make time to visit some elsewhere. Meanwhile I stare at your pictures hungrily.

You are made so lovingly by nature, Rima that you seem to spring from it, become one with it. Thank you for sharing this enchanted space around you. It was floating in my head for a long, long time and now i see it in here :)

Lovely pics!I couldn't resist adding to this. The tree on the wall at the top is called Beaver Tree, it's possible to climb all the way to the top. Once you get up there you will find many generations of lover initials carved into it.... including mine somewhere! x

Thank you so much for this site. The Hermitage is so beautiful. I love the artwork. My husband passed away recently. He collected Russian Impressionism. We have some small pieces that I treasure. He really taught me to love art. He was a decent painter himself. Finding your site is just like him taking me to a museum and educating me on Faberge eggs and Russian folk art. I still feel very attached to the art world he opened up for me. I come from Pittsburg and we were raised with steel and factories in our heads and hearts. Mom and Dad didn’t take us to any art museum events . I’m so amazed that art is as close as my computer, now. When we retired my husband and I took a computer class and this new world opened for us. Thank you for putting beauty back in people’s lives.

I am delighted to have found your blog! I am an artist myself and I love the way your art weaves in with how you live and that you share it. Have you read the Rumer Godden story'The Diddakoi'? I was sure that I was in the proper place when I found out that you like Terri Windling's writing...I know that I will come back and visit a lot!

Hi Rima,Just a quick note to say I've just been randomly inspired to post a clip of Tarkovsky's 'Stalker' on my art blog... If you don't already know of Tarkovsky, I think you might really like this film...If you do already know of it, please just ignore me!! :)Best wishesCarrie... (Windsongs & Wordhoards)

Beautiful words and photos and everything Rima. Spring has well and truly sprun here in County Clare. Today we had a visit from a red squirrel and this evening a lapwing was singing and doing its courting dance in the next field. Oh, and the first Brimstone butterfly came yesterday. Bliss.

About Me

Rima Staines is an artist using paint, wood, word, music, animation, clock-making, puppetry & story to attempt to build a gate through the hedge that grows along the boundary between this world & that. Her gate-building has been a lifelong pursuit, & she hopes to have perhaps propped aside even one spiked loop of bramble (leaving a chink just big enough for a mud-kneeling, trusting eye to glimpse the beauty there beyond), before she goes through herself.

Always stubborn about living the things that make her heart sing, Rima’s houses have a tendency to be wheeled. She currently dwells in an old cottage on top of a hill on the edge of Dartmoor with her beloved, Tom, & their big-hearted, ice-eyed lurcher, Macha.

Rima’s inspirations include the world & language of folktale; faces of people who pass her on the street; folk music & art of Old Europe & beyond; peasant & nomadic living; magics of every feather; wilderness & plant-lore; the margins of thought, experience, community & spirituality; & the beauty in otherness.

Crumbs fall from Rima’s threadbare coat pockets as she travels, & can be found collected here, where you may join the caravan.